Afenifere Reveals How President Buhari Tricked Tinubu...Read Details

Posted by Lolade on Wed 02nd Sep, 2015 - tori.ng

A chieftain of Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere Femi Okunrounmu, has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari deceived Bola Amhed Tinubu to get South West votes to office.

President Buhari and Bola Tinubu

In an interview with Punch, chairman of the defunct presidential advisory committee on National Conference, Senator Femi Okunrounmu said that President Muhammadu Buhari tricked Bola Amhed Tinubu to get South West votes to office.

He said; "Tinubu thought he will be made the national kingmaker

"Tinubu’s story is like Afonja in Ilorin in 1817. Ilorin used to be under the Oyo Empire and was the headquarters of an Oyo General, Afonja. But Afonja rebelled against the empire and helped bring about its collapse with the assistance of the Fulani. Afonja was assisted by Shehu Alimi, who was a Fulani leader. In 1824 Afonja was assassinated and Alimi’s son became Emir and Ilorin became an emirate of the Sokoto Caliphate

"It was naive of Tinubu to think that Buhari would just get power and he (Tinubu) would become the kingmaker of Nigeria. That is what Tinubu expected and that was why we kept reminding him of the Ilorin episode. We told him that once Buhari got power, he would turn around and just forget about him and implement a northern hegemonic agenda which Buhari is doing now.

"In 1960, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, made a statement publicly that the northerners should regard Nigeria as their conquered territory and that they own Nigeria. He said the entire South-West and South-East should be regarded as conquered territory and that the North should never allow the South to govern.

"This statement was widely reported in the media. It was in the West African Pilot of October 12, 1960. The quote was boldly published. So, the keys to the chains of slavery we thought we could use to break free were just given back to the North by the APC. The APC became an agent of oppression and enslavement. We can all see that Buhari only tricked Tinubu to get power back to the North.

"As a Yoruba man I am very uncomfortable with this. Buhari had a reputation for ethnic bias and when we said it during the election, they said we were lying. The change the APC was talking about meant two different things.

"The APC in the North saw change as an opportunity to return power to the region while those in the South-West were looking for genuine social change. At the end, the North just used the South-West to climb back into Aso Rock.

"We Yoruba are very educated and we shouldn’t be fooled so easily. Even look at the 36 state governors and their deputies. How many deputy governors have power? The relationship is the same between the President and his deputy.

"The vice-president is as powerful as the President wants him to be. If the President doesn’t want him to see anything happening, he cannot see anything and he has no choice. So, being a vice-president is not anything to be proud of.